Light the World
by FancifulRivers
Summary: When Light meets Ryuk, Ryuk is not very nice. (Not that that's unusual.) Written for the One Prompt Many Fandoms competition.


**Author's Note: I do not and never will own Death Note. (Nor will I own *a* death note...)**

 **Written for the One Prompt Many Fandoms competition. (The dialogue is at least attempted to be accurate, for what actually happens in canon.)**

His fingers curled around the binding, riffling through the slightly scratchy pages. The notebook looked so innocuous, who would believe the neatly penned rows of names represented deaths? Caused by _him?_ A school boy, with a pen and paper and nothing else. It was impossible. He laughed, the darkness in his room clinging to him like a shroud. Light Yagami, cleansing the world of evil, one name at a time. What a heady thought.

"Well, you seem to like it," a voice spoke, and he jumped, the Death Note falling to his desk. Whirling around, he saw- he didn't believe what he saw at first. Something _monstrous_. Before he realized what had happened, he was on the floor, the chair knocked over beside him.

"Why so shocked?" the creature asked, stepping forward into better light. It towered over Light. "I'm Ryuk. The Shinigami who dropped that notebook. From what I've seen," he nodded to Light's desk. "You're already aware that it's no ordinary notebook."

Light nodded, still half-dazed as he pulled himself to his feet. He'd been expecting this moment, although he hadn't expected a Shinigami to look quite like... _that_. Ryuk's head nearly brushed the ceiling, and he could see dark wings.

"I'm not shocked," he informed the Shinigami. "I've been waiting for you. Ryuk." He tested the name on his tongue. It felt right in a way he didn't really want to think about.

"Oh?" Ryuk blinked. Light couldn't tell if he looked surprised or bored.

"I didn't think the Shinigami's Notebook could be real," he continued. "But after seeing its results? Now I can act with certainty." A grin started, slanting across his mouth. _The world will know of my existence. My name._

"You really surprise me," Ryuk said. Light wondered if he ever blinked. "I've heard of Death Notes getting down to the human world before. But you're the first one to use it to _this_ extent in just five days. Most people would be too scared."

"I'm prepared, Ryuk," Light said, sitting down again and trying to quell the tremble in his legs. "I used it knowing it belonged to a Shinigami. And now that Shinigami is here. So what will happen to me? Are you going to take my soul?" His fingers shook. He looked down at the names to calm himself. Meaningless graphite-and-ink scribbles.

"Huh?" Ryuk replied. "I'm not going to do anything to you." Light gasped.

"Once the Death Note lands in the human world, it belongs to the human world," Ryuk explained. "Or in other words, that-" he pointed at the notebook with one claw-tipped finger "-belongs to you. If you don't want it, give it to some other human. But if you do that, all memory of it will be erased from your mind."

"So there's no price for using the Death Note?" Light exclaimed. He felt hot and cold all over, trembling with some frenzy he barely understood (and couldn't care anymore that the Shinigami could see his loss of composure). All of his plans- they could come to fruition -

Ryuk seemed to hesitate, thinking for a moment.

"If anything, there is only the fear and pain that comes with humans using the Death Note," he said. "And when you die, I'll write your name in _my_ Death Note." Light's eyes fell on what could only be the notebook in question, strapped to the Shinigami with what looked like a skull-emblazoned cross. "And don't think that any human who's _used_ the Death Note will ever go to Heaven or Hell. You'll find out about that _after_ you die." The Shinigami laughed, sending a chill down Light's spine and breaking his arms into goosebumps.

A knock on the door, and Light jumped, nearly falling out of his chair again. He paused, but the Shinigami urged him on. His mother, offering a basket of apples. And she couldn't see Ryuk. His brow furrowed in confusion.

"That notebook originally belonged to me," Ryuk stated off-handedly, inching closer to the apples. "You're the one using it now, so. You're the only one who can see me. Or hear me, for that matter." The Shinigami's hand stole out and grabbed an apple.

"I just have one more question," Light said, trying to sound casual. "Why did you choose me?"

"I could see the light burning inside you," Ryuk replied, starting on a second apple. "Your plans- your desires- your brilliance- You will transform humanity, you will bring a new future, though you may regret it. Light Yagami, bringing redemption, of a sort, with his Death Note. What you wanted, is it not?"

"Really?" Light gasped, leaning closer toward the Shinigami as if that could bring about his destiny sooner.

"No, not really," Ryuk laughed and laughed, crunching up the last apple. "Don't flatter yourself. I didn't choose you. I dropped the Death Note and you happened to pick it up."

"What?" Light asked, burning with humiliation. His ears rang and he pinched himself viciously. "W-Why did you drop it then?"

"Why?" The Shinigami grinned, so widely his mouth had to have hurt. Apple juice trickled down his chin. "Because I was bored."

There was more, of course. Ryuk inquiring after his plans, letting drop the telltale information that it was pointless to write a Shinigami's name in, it wouldn't work. (So much for that idea, Light thought sourly.)

But all he could think of was using the notebook again and again...he would prove Ryuk wrong, he would prove to the Shinigami that he _should_ have chosen Light Yagami-

He would save the world, even if he had to damn himself to do it.


End file.
